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World War I:
Origins of the War in Europe
The war that erupted in Europe in the summer of
1914 and that spread to much of the rest of the
world in the next four years was rooted deeply in
the general cultural life of that continent and the
changes that had occurred there during the half
century preceding the outbreak of that conflict.
An intensive examination of the origins of what
became known to an entire generation as the
Great War is beyond the scope of this work. It is
possible, however, to take a brief look at the general
trends and developments in Europe that led to the
war that in turn set in motion the course of events
for most of the twentieth century.
The background for war can be traced to at
least six major developments in Europe:
(1) The decline of liberalism and reliance on reason
to resolve disputes.
(2) The rise of a virulent, jingoistic form of
nationalism in virtually all of the major European
countries.
(3) The rise of imperialistic thought and pursuits.
(4) The use of secret treaties.
(5) A rapidly accelerating arms race.
(6) A growing military influence on government
policy.
These trends did not develop separately but
rather occurred together and reinforced each
other. A closer examination of each of these major
trends will cast more light on why an otherwise
progressive civilization chose to exhibit such
barbaric and uncivilized behavior in the years from
1914 to 1918 and which caused Europe to lose its
preeminent position in the world from which it has
never completely recovered.
Liberalism as it was defined in the nineteenth
century referred to the movement for
constitutional government, protection of individual
liberties from arbitrary power, religious toleration,
free and fair economic competition, national selfdetermination, and the solution of problems by
rational means and orderly procedures. In the
early nineteenth century, liberalism was on the
rise in Europe, but in the years after 1870, it began
a gradual retreat. This retreat was characterized
by several things. One was the reversion back to
protectionism from free trade in which countries
tried to protect their own industries from foreign
competition but which ended up creating some
economic strangulation and heightened economic
suspicion and distrust from recurring tariff wars.
Another manifestation of the retreat of liberalism
was the weakening of the belief in human reason
and its ability to solve human problems. The new
trend in European thought was the glorification
of violence and an increasing emphasis on irrational
motivations in human behavior. Yet another
sign of the retreat of liberalism was the rise of
pseudo-constitutional government in countries like
Germany where constitutional forms were kept in
use but rendered meaningless. This was largely due
to the increasing glorification of the military and its
purposes and by the dominant executive authority
of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in the 1870’s
and 1880’s and by Kaiser Wilhelm II in the decades
before the war.
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World War I:
Origins of the War in Europe (continued)
Nationalism had been linked originally to
liberalism as a means of fighting the reactionary
forces of local nobles and their narrow
particularistic interests. Nationalists, such as in
Germany and Italy, believed that unifying their
nations would create material improvement and
a better life for much larger numbers of their
citizens. They also believed that national unity
would lead to the realization of the liberal ideas
of constitutional government and individual rights
for all citizens. In addition, they believed that
unifying the nations of Europe would create a more
stable and peaceful international order than what
existed under the old order. After the unification
of Italy in the 1850’s and Germany in the 1860’s,
however, the development of nationalism began
to take a more ominous turn. Instead of being
a means to progressive ends, the cause of the
nation gradually became an end in itself. In all the
major European countries and even most of the
smaller ones, the primacy of the nation gradually
became so important that its interests had to be
upheld at all costs including war. This change in the
nature of nationalism began to uncouple it from
liberalism. In this atmosphere, liberalism declined
while nationalism grew in strength and intensity
and eventually began to spawn racial ideologies
that culminated after World War I in various fascist
movements generally throughout Europe but
especially with Nazism in Germany.
In a sense, nationalism became the secular
religion of Europe in the years after 1870 as a
replacement for organized Christianity which
had already been declining in influence for
several centuries. Europeans gradually adopted
an increasingly romanticized view of the nation
and saw it as the most venerable institution of
all. Death on the battlefield for the national cause
was now seen as the most glorious form of public
service and self-sacrifice.
Starting in the 1870’s, many European
countries engaged in a race to establish colonies
in underdeveloped areas of the world, such as in
Africa, the southwest Pacific, and in East Asia. This
trend toward imperialism was encouraged by
several factors. One was the growing maturity of
European industry which brought on the need for
new markets and new sources of raw materials.
Another factor was economic hard times in the
1870’s and 1880’s which encouraged working class
people to give business interests political support
in their search for these new markets and new
sources of raw materials. Trade protectionism and
increasing distrust between nations also encouraged
the race for colonies. As the pursuit of empire
building proceeded, it created more and more
clashes between the European powers and with
the native peoples they were trying to intimidate
into colonial submission. By 1905, however, all
the major European powers, i.e., Britain, France,
Germany, Italy, Spain, and Russia, had suffered at
least one major military or diplomatic defeat in the
course of empire building. While this stanched the
flow of imperialistic expansion, it only exacerbated
the already growing mutual suspicion and distrust
of one another. Also, while imperialistic expansion
began to subside by about 1905, the burdens
of imperial administration continued to create
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World War I:
Origins of the War in Europe (continued)
diplomatic problems between the powers right up
to 1914 and also created conflicts with the colonies
themselves until well after World War II.
The foregoing developments also led to the
use of secret treaties. These treaties created
a situation in which every country became fearful of
losing allies and becoming isolated and surrounded
by enemies. For example, in 1890, when Germany
ended its alliance with Russia in favor of one with
Austria-Hungary, a whole new alignment of alliances
occurred as Russia established a new alliance with
France. When the French eventually linked up
diplomatically with Britain, Russia felt compelled
to join the British also, especially after losing
a war with Japan in 1905. This fear of isolation
also allowed the most irresponsible members of
each alliance to control the alliance. During the
final crisis in 1914, Germany could not restrain
the irresponsible elements in either its own
government or the Austrian government while
the British and French were unable to restrain the
irresponsible elements in the Russian government.
All these trends led to an accelerating arms race
among the major European powers. Virtually all of
them tripled their military spending between 1870
and 1914, with an acceleration beginning about
1900 and increasing in particular between 1910 and
1914. Germany challenged Britain to a naval arms
race while all countries produced new ships, new
guns, and new battalions.
The growing arms race led to rising military
influence on government policy decision making.
Civilian political leaders listened more and more
to advice from their military and naval officers.
Sometimes strong military personalities overrode
civilian authorities as was the case with Field
Marshal Conrad von Hotzendorf in Austria and
Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz in Germany.
Civilian authorities, such as Russian foreign minister
Alexander Izvolsky and Austrian foreign minister
Count Aehrenthal, allowed themselves to be
overcome by the increasingly militaristic mentality
in policy making and drove their policy making in
riskier and more dangerous directions. This in turn
led to a series of localized wars in the Balkans in
southeastern Europe starting in 1908. Although
these wars were resolved by the diplomats, every
succeeding conflict wore down the morale of the
diplomats and increased the fighting spirit of the
soldiers and the military establishments.
By the spring of 1914, Europe was a powder
keg that was ready to be lit. Then on June 28,
the Austrian heir apparent, Franz Ferdinand, and his
wife were assassinated in Sarajevo, the capital of
Bosnia, a politically unstable province of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, by Gavrilo Princip,
a young extreme Serbian nationalist. There had
been considerable friction between Austria and
Serbia for years, and the Austrian government used
the assassination as an excuse for extreme action
against the Serbs. After receiving an essentially
“blank check” from Germany to take any action
they pleased, Austria sent an ultimatum to Serbia
on July 23 with demands that would have effectively
ended Serbia’s national sovereignty. Russia, Serbia’s
major ally in the region, had been counseling
moderation and restraint. However, on receipt of
news of the ultimatum, political momentum in the
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World War I:
Origins of the War in Europe (continued)
Russian government shifted from the moderates
to the militarists and the country began to prepare
for war. Serbia responded to the Austrians by
accepting almost all the terms of the ultimatum, but
Austria declared their response to be unsatisfactory
and declared war on July 28.
Now the system of secret treaties came into play
and worked its deadly effect. Like a chain reaction
each major power was pulled into the conflict, and
in just one week they were all at war. Austria’s
declaration of war against Serbia only stimulated
Russian mobilization. Germany sent a formal
demand to Russia to stop its mobilization. When
Germany received no reply, it declared war on
Russia on August 1. Knowing that France would
enter the war as Russia’s ally, the Germans decided
to strike quickly against them. They used a plan
developed by General Alfred von Schlieffen some
years before in which Belgium was invaded as
a means to outflank and encircle the French.
This violation of Belgium’s neutrality on August 3
helped to trigger a British declaration of war on
Germany on August 4. For the first time since the
days of Napoleon a century earlier, Europe was now
involved in a general war. Although few could have
suspected it in the war enthusiasm of the moment,
this would be the deadliest and most destructive
conflict in Europe since the religious wars of the
seventeenth century.